If there is a common starting point, beautiful things can be created. For me, that starting point is not a style but our perception of the roles we hold as human beings. Then we can create beautiful music.
Greek pianist Yann Keerim has developed a musical language that moves between classical tradition, Mediterranean folk idioms, and contemporary improvisation.
Born in Ioannina, in northwest Greece, Keerim began piano studies at the age of four, later drawing inspiration from Alexander Scriabin’s harmonic innovations. At the same time, he learned by ear at village festivals, where the sounds of regional music shaped his sense of rhythm and improvisation.
His most recent release, Topos (ECM, 2025), is his first duo recording with lyra player Sokratis Sinopoulos, produced by Manfred Eicher. The album reimagines Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances and introduces original pieces, creating a shared sound world where folk memory and contemporary expression meet. Topos is the latest step in their long collaboration, which also includes Keerim’s role as pianist in the Sokratis Sinopoulos Quartet on the ECM albums Eight Winds (2013) and Metamodal (2019).
Yann is also a member of the Oceania Trio, presenting original compositions in a European jazz context, and the JAK Trio, where the music of Epirus meets classical forms.